Red Garland - Soul Junction (Prestige 7181)

Jazz record collectors, it seems, are more than just a niche of the record collecting, uhh, group of people. They are numerous and they are, it seems, completely freaking rich. Older jazz records seem to hold their value in places like eBay better than just about anything. The music on some of these labels (Prestige, Blue Note, etc.) is almost always amazing and it stands to reason that much of the original buyers were African Americans. I don't think I'm out of line to suppose that most record collecting nerds do not know many old black people and thus the records that we nerds have access to are fewer in quantity and almost sold by people who are strongly aware of what they have. To turn up a rare early jazz record for a few bucks is subsequently quite a feat nowadays. This particular Red Garland gem was a part of one of my best record finds during one of my many, many trips to J&J Flea Market in Athens, GA. I purchased it from a booth of miscellaneous stuff that appeared to be confiscated from storage unit owners who failed to pay their bill. Goldmine lists it as being valued at $100. All of the above things considered, I suspect it would be fetch a greater return on eBay or in a record store than some of the $200 records I'll feature here. It was released in 1960 which makes it not quite as rare as much of the Prestige Records output but it's in great shape and features one of the all-time great jazz musicians in John Coltrane. Coltrane is actually my favorite jazz musician and I actively search out his records in hopes of putting together most of his catalogue. This is indeed a tall task as he was quite prolific and many of his records are holy grails for jazz collectors.

Mickey Mantle - My Favorite Hits (RCA LPM-1704)

Here we have a unique RCA compilation called "My Favorite Hits." Goldmine lists the record under Mantle's name but as far as I can recall he doesn't appear on the album. Instead we have an assortment of his favorite songs (or at least his favorite songs that RCA owned the rights to). This record is particularly weird for me to have as a diehard Boston Red Sox fan but I'm not afraid to admit that I love it and sought it out for quite awhile before turning it up in a Gainesville, Florida record store for only $20. Goldmine book value is $400 and on the rare occasion it shows up on eBay it goes for a lofty sum. I do regret purchasing it when I did, as it happened to be a day in which the Yankees were playing the Red Sox. Because of the jinx that came with my purchase, the Yanks won the game, haha. An almost identical thing happened when I bought a LIFE magazine with Mantle on the cover. Oh well.
The song selection leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately. As cool and iconic as Mickey was, his taste in music is pretty disappointing. There are a lot of slow paced jazz classics of the time (1958) and thus I rarely find myself listening to this one. Highlights include Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. This is one of a few sports related records I've turned up over the past few years. I proudly own a record with the best of the broadcasts from the Red Sox 1975 playoff run as well as a record on the 1980 Kansas City Royals World Series run. More similar to the Mantle is the Stan Musial record I own. I suspect it's comparably valuable to the Mantle but cannot find it listed anywhere outside of eBay.

Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley (Chess 1431)

Let's start this out with a classic. The debut album by Bo Diddley called Bo Diddley and featuring the hit single Bo Diddley. Where Mr. Diddley lacked in his ability to name things he more than compensated with his ability to rock way ahead of his time. Oh and walk funny. This one has a Goldmine book value of $200 in near mint condition. My copy is about as mint as they get except for the obvious owner-signature on the cover. eBay tells me there's a copy for sale of this record (sans signature) in comparable shape for $140. The seller might not get that much but they will probably get more than the $7 I paid for mine. I have inexplicably turned up three of Bo Diddley's first four albums over the past few years so look for them to be featured here in the future.
As for the layout of the site, I will be tagging each post with their artist, record label and genre as to ultimately develop statistics in these categories for the items I choose to post. Any other suggestions for the site are welcomed. I certainly don't want this to turn into "random guy shows off his record collection" so input would be great.
Be sure to bookmark or subscribe to the site and come back often. Thanks.